I love the small rotary industrial cutters. They are easy to use and pretty darn quiet. They can cut through about an inch of stacked fabric. You can purchase the smaller industrial cutter that I have for under $100 here. I own several different brands including the Yamata.

I love that it is self sharpening….just push the button and the little grinder sharpens your blade. Just be careful of the sparks around fabric!

If you are really brave and doing a ton of production there are much larger cutters these two range from 4″ of cutting height to 8″ of cutting height (and now might be time to update your liability insurance if you have employees!):

If you have a dedicated space for cutting I recommend putting your plug outlets on the ceiling. We’ve cut through a few cords accidentally in the last few years……it’s scary enough to make you pee your pants!

If those cutters look too intimidating, we use this one too (you can see it used in the video). I got mine from Dharma Trading. It’s basically a pair of electronic scissors.

A few tips for maintaining your cutter:1. Clean and oil your cutter regularly.

i remember you mentioning this or seeing a photo of this in one of your old posts and being totally fascinated with the heavy duty cutter! 🙂 i have to admit, while i was loving the evolution of a dress video, i was so enthralled with that cutter1 eeeps! thaks for the post! 🙂

I would really appreciate to if you could Share your experience on cutting several layers of fabric. Do you use fabric clamps to tighten the fabric? And what Tricks can you use to make sure all stripes are straight and placed on each other? Do you always use trickmarker or is it just a simple pen?

I have always used a regular rotary cutter when cutting patterns, I never thought about an electric one! I liked how your cutter traced the pattern then cut it. I have always cut around my paper pattern. I am going to trace them from now on, that way I don’t accidentally cut my pattern.

THANK YOU! I recently purchased a cutter at a yard sale for $2.00! I love it; however, Black & Decker has discontinued them and no longer offers a replacement blade. It works great for now but I’m sure I will need to replace it with a much heavier duty one….so THANK YOU for posting this.